Freedom of Information Act Office

IC Directors' Meeting Highlights

Announcements/Updates

NIH-FDA Partnership:

As follow-up to the February 24, 2010 establishment of an NIH-FDA partnership, Dr. Collins announced that six NIH IC Directors have been invited to serve on the joint NIH-FDA Leadership Council:

Anthony Fauci

Susan Shurin

Griffin Rodgers

Story Landis

Jeremy Berg

Tom Insel

A public stakeholders meeting will be held on June 2 to solicit comments for the Council on how the NIH and FDA can more effectively collaborate.

Discussion Items

Diversity Policy Framework:

Dr. Raynard Kington, NIH Deputy Director, reviewed the history of NIH diversity programs and discussed current policy issues and concerns. Dr. Kington proposed a comprehensive review of all NIH programs whose mission is to improve diversity of the scientific workforce and the developmentof a consistent agency-wide approach for assuring that the programs are appropriately structured.

Update: Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSAs):

Dr. Barbara Alving, Director of the National Center for Research Resources, provided the IC Directors with an update on the CTSA Consortium activities. Currently, the Consortium has 46 CTSA sites in 26 states and will increase to 60 CTSA sites when fully implemented in 2011.

The vision of the CTSA consortium is to improve human health by enhancing the efficiency and quality of clinical and translational research and by transforming the training environment.

Examples were provided of projects that demonstrate the implementation of the five CTSA strategic goals of 1) promoting efficient translation of laboratory discoveries to preclinical and phase 1 clinical studies with development of public-private partnerships when appropriate, 2) improving efficiencies in clinical research management, 3) promoting collaborations, providing research tools, and addressing informatics needs, 4) enhancing the health of the population through community engagement and comparative effectiveness research, and 5) providing degree-granting programs in clinical and translational research that emphasize team-based interdisciplinary research that may include industry interactions and development of patents.

Discussion addressed issues such as the way in which academic health centers with CTSAs provide homes for clinical researchers, in terms of physical space and appointments and tenure; how goals are incentivized; and how to manage the CTSA consortium so it may effectively integrate with NIH Institute and Center clinical research efforts in order to reduce duplication of effort and resources. Dr. Alving identified some current efforts (searchable web sites that will link investigators throughout the nation and also provide information on core resources). Dr. Collins has visited several CTSA sites and noted that pilot project investments have resulted in some interesting and innovative developments.